Stephanie Mills Returns with "Yesterday" Cover, New Album

Mine was Stephanie Mills. I was 3 when “What’cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'” came out back in ’79. “Sweet Sensation” came out the year after, and I was smitten. There was something about the voice and the attitude that caught my interest. Granted, you can’t have much of a crush when you’re a toddler, but I wanted the little lady with the big voice to be my pretend girlfriend. We could sit around and listen to records all day.

Those two albums marked a decade of non-stop hits for the powerhouse vocalist, who initially gained fame portraying Dorothy in the Broadway version of “The Wiz”. She scored five #1 R&B singles, a string of hit albums, and garnered an American Music Award and a Grammy during that stretch. Even after parting ways with MCA Records in the early Nineties, Stephanie never really went away for long: touring the world, returning to the stage, and releasing a gospel CD during that time. She made a return to pop music just a couple of years ago with the album “Born for This”.

Miss Mills is now back, with a beautiful version of The Beatles’ standard “Yesterday” and an upcoming album entitled “Breathless”. Her performance of the Lennon/McCartney classic is beautiful. She dedicates it to her friend Michael Jackson-as most MJ fans know, he and Stephanie enjoyed a very close friendship back in the late Seventies. I gotta say-good black don’t crack. Stephanie still looks and sounds as fine as ever. Check out her website and also follow her on Twitter: @prettymill1.

In addition to the official video for “Yesterday”, I’m also including her American Music Awards acceptance speech from 1982 (if they’d have asked me to pick a winner in that category, my brain might have exploded) and one of my favorite classic tracks from her and another superstar who left us too soon, Teddy Pendergrass.

2 comments

Love her version of “Yesterday” a lot less than I love her. I think that particular year I would have given Stephanie Mills the AMA–that’s the year of “Never Knew Love Like This Before,” right? Coked up early 1980’s Smokey, by the way, came up with some great albums.

I actually think it was the year after “Never Knew Love Like This Before”, considering the background music they played behind each nominee. Chaka came out with “What’cha Gonna Do for Me” that year, which I consider to be her best solo album. Close call, that one.